Roughly twenty million people in the United States are diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and of those, a large percentage end up being diagnosed with fibromyalgia as well. Both of the conditions have many similar symptoms, such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, and muscle and joint soreness and pain.

This is one reason why it is extremely difficult to officially diagnose fibromyalgia in the first place (let alone treat it), because they share so many of the same symptoms as other diseases.

The process for diagnosing fibromyalgia is long and expensive, taking up to many months or even entire years. Doctors will conduct a series of physical tests and symptom evaluations to narrow down the list of possible conditions that you might have.

Today, it is estimated that around five million American suffer from Fibromyalgia, most in middle aged women. Men and children (teens in particular) can also develop fibromyalgia, though it is much less common in them.

The Symptoms

There are many symptoms of fibromyalgia, including pain and soreness throughout the body (particular in the muscles and joints); headaches, especially in the back of the head; pain in the neck and shoulder; pain in the hips and buttocks; pain in the knees; extreme fatigue and sleepiness throughout the day; difficulty sleeping at night and then feeling the urge to sleep during the say; diahhrea and vomiting; chest pain; short breaths; swollen tissues; incoherent thoughts; the inability to remember clearly; dry mouth; a numbness in the hands and feet; bloating and cramping; feeling numb when exposed to new temperature changes; palpitations; pain throughout the arms and legs; tender sore spots in the body that feel only more painful when pressure is applied to them; muscle twitching; urinating frequently; anxiety and depression; and the inability to even remember little things (such as names or numbers) from the previous day(s).

Diagnosing Fibromyalgia

Like we have said, diagnosing fibromyalgia is extremely difficult since the symptoms of it are present in other medical diseases and conditions as well. Just look over the symptoms that we’ve gone over. That’s a very thick and dense list, so it’s easy to see why doctors have to make a long list of possible medical conditions and then take months and sometimes years to conduct physical tests and symptoms evaluation to officially give you a diagnosis.

When looking to diagnose you for fibromyalgia, doctors will especially look for if you have had this continuous pain for a minimum time period of at least three months, have had pain on both sides of the bone and above the waist and below, and whether you have had back pain as well. If you have all of these things, they will look for pain in a majority of the eighteen tender spots in the body.

These tender spots are where the neck muscles attach to the base of the skull, muscles over the shoulder blade, the muscles where the shoulder blade meets the neck, below the elbow on both arms, the upper buttocks, the hip bones, the lower part of the neck, the upper part of the breast bone, and just above the knees.

Okay, wait a minute. You read this article wanting to know the link between fibromyalgia and thyroids, and instead, we’re talking about the symptoms and diagnosis of fibromyalgia? Actually, this is where the link between thyroids and fibromyalgia comes in; it’s just important to understand the symptoms and diagnosis process of fibromyalgia first.

If you are thyroid patient, you may be displaying the same symptoms and signs of fibromyalgia. If so, then you will want to consult with a practitioner who specializes in these kinds of symptoms. On the other side of things, if you are a fibromyalgia patient, then you will want to also consult your practitioner or medical professional to see if you might have a thyroid problem. This thyroid problem may not only be a factor in your fibromyalgia symptoms, but they may be entirely causing it as well.

Many people only take a thyroid test to determine whether or not they have an imbalance in thyroids, but many doctors and medical professionals recommend that you want to take a thyroid test to see if you have fibromyalgia as well. Previously, the medical train of thought has been that the symptoms for thyroid hormone deficiency are caused by hypothyroidism, and that only patients with hypothyroidism should be allowed to use a thyroid hormone, at levels designated by their doctor.

Many doctors though have challenged this train of thought, believing that the effort to learn more about fibromyalgia is linked to the effort to learn more about and treat thyroid deficiency. Many doctors and medical professionals have begun to think that the symptoms for fibromyalgia are instead symptoms for a resistance to thyroid hormones or hypothyroidism.

A patient with cellular resistance may also have perfectly fine thyroid hormone levels and still have the symptoms of hypothyroidism. However, many people are not even closely aware of this. This is because that if you have hypothyroidism, then it’s all too common for you to also have the same symptoms as fibromyalgia, such as muscles and joint pain and aches, fatigue, anxiety, depression, etc. A doctor who sees these symptoms may diagnose you with fibromyalgia, when you might only have hypothyroidism or something related.

The symptoms that you have for fibromyalgia may only be the symptoms for hypothyroidism that has either been undertreated or not treated at all. As your hypothyroidism or even your deficiency in thyroid hormones gets worse, the number of tissues and the symptoms will only increase. The more and more pain and symptoms that you feel, then the more likely your doctor will follow the steps and soft spots of diagnosing fibromyalgia that we discussed above. You may be diagnosed with fibromyalgia when the real problem had to do with thyroids.